Calculus of Variations and Geometric Measure Theory

M. Goldman - G. De Philippis

A two-point function approach to connectedness of drops in convex potentials

created by goldman on 05 Sep 2018
modified by dephilipp on 05 Jun 2023

[BibTeX]

Accepted Paper

Inserted: 5 sep 2018
Last Updated: 5 jun 2023

Journal: CAG
Year: 2018

ArXiv: 1809.01513 PDF

Abstract:

We establish connectedness of volume constrained minimisers of energies involving surface tensions and convex potentials. By a previous result of McCann, this implies that minimisers are convex in dimension two. This positively answers an old question of Almgren. We also prove convexity of minimisers when the volume constraint is dropped. Our proof is based on the introduction of a new "two-point function" which measures the lack of convexity and which gives rise to a negative second variation of the energy.


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